World Book Night 2011 - GIVEAWAY

I mentioned a little while ago that I had been given a place as a book giver on World Book Night, which is this Saturday, 5th March. If you don't know about World Book Night then a) you probably don't watch the BBC as they advertise it before every single programme, and b) you are missing out. 1,000,000 special edition books have been printed and are going to be given out free on Saturday evening as part of a huge event aimed to get more people to care about books and reading again. 40,000 copies of each of the 25 titles have been sent out to book givers across the country. Each book has a special edition cover and features a tracking number in the back with the idea that once you have read the book, you pass it on to someone else (you got it for free, afterall) and you can leave details on the WBN website where you left the book or who you gave it to and hopefully it could be tracked to anywhere in the world. Pretty cool, right?

The book I am going to be giving away is Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (not my first choice, can I just add. I actually had Northern Lights down as my first choice, as, I think, did twenty-thousand other people). I read Fingersmith a few years ago and I remember being absolutely entranced by it. It is a 'Victorian-inspired crime fiction novel' (thanks, Wiki), which, yeah, isn't my usual choice of reading material, and it has been five years since I last read it, so I'm hoping it's as good as I remember. I picked the boxes of books up on Saturday and the WBN covers are excellent; there's only 40,000 of each, too, so they're kind of limited edition.

I am really, really excited to be a part of this. As an avid reader and someone who is passionate about literature, this event is something that I would love anyway, but the fact that I am a part of it is pretty amazing. I'd really like to get anyone else interested involved as well.

I am therefore going to be giving away four copies of Fingersmith to my readers. They're completely free and I will pay for postage to anywhere in the world (you might have to wait a while for it if you're overseas as I will most definitely be using the very cheapest postal service). The giveaway will be open until this Saturday 5th March at noon, and I will announce the four winners sometime on Saturday night, during World Book Night.

To enter, make sure that you follow this blog, and then send an email to me at emily.battye@hotmail.co.uk. Include your name and your blog address in the email. I'm only accepting email entries, not comments. On Saturday I will pick four winners at random and will get in touch via email etc etc.

I'm so psyched about this! There are loads of events going on across the country (and, I am assuming, the world, hence the event title) so check out the World Book Night website to see if there is anything going on near you. I'm going to be around in York on Saturday evening handing out books and I am guessing that loads of other people will be doing the same all over the place, so don't freak out if someone comes up to you on Saturday and tries to give you a book. They're not weird. Well, they might be. I don't personally know them all.

Remember, email by Saturday at noon if you want to enter the giveaway, and check the WBN and Waterstones websites if you want to find out about any events near you.